Rick Minter, Senior Writer

Rick Minter joined The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 1991, where he covered motorsports as well as serving as a bureau chief.
From 2000-2008 he focused on racing exclusively, traveling the NASCAR circuit as the paper’s motorsports writer and winning awards from several organizations including the Georgia20 Automobile Racing Hall of Fame Association and the City of Atlanta.
Minter and his wife Joanne live on the family farm in Inman, Ga. In his spare time he collects and restores antique tractors and trucks.

The NASCAR cream is rising to the top, well almost to the top. Saturday’s qualifying session at Atlanta Motor Speedway saw eight of the top 10 starting spots go to drivers contending for berths in the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup, which begins after next Saturday’s race at Richmond International Raceway.

By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
There’s lots of excitement around Atlanta and throughout NASCAR over the prospect of running a nighttime Sprint Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on a holiday weekend.
Sunday’s Pep Boys Auto 500 could provide the kind of boost the track needs to increase attendance and quell the talk of the speedway [...]

By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
This is becoming the week of living dangerously for Sprint Cup drivers. First Carl Edwards broke his foot playing Frisbee and now Bill Elliott has cracked three ribs riding his dirt bike.
“It was just a freak deal,” Elliott said. He said although he probably could have raced in pain, he [...]

By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
There are a lot of people who would say that Nationwide Series driver Ken Butler III is a “Lucky Dog” because his dad is president of Atlanta-based Aaron’s and therefore has ready access to the funds required for his son’s racing adventures.
Butler, who does have Aaron’s on the side of [...]

By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Some Thursday Observations:
* The news this week about Austin Dillon entering the Camping World Truck Series race at Iowa Speedway in a No. 3 Chevy brought to mind a visit to 311 Speedway in Madison, N.C., a few years back.
Then, as now, there was great interest in what it would [...]

By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
The NASCAR circuit is back at Atlanta Motor Speedway this week, so that means the home folks have to brace for another round of stories questioning whether the track should lose one of its Cup dates.
The talk doesn’t make sense to them for a variety of reasons. Even with the [...]

By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Throughout his long and storied career in the circuit now known as Sprint Cup, Richard Petty enjoyed much success in the state of Georgia, where the Cup circuit runs this Sunday night at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the Atlanta suburb of Hampton.
Petty grabbed six of his 200 career wins at [...]

By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
When Dale Earnhardt Jr. is pondering the key moments in his racing career, one that often comes to mind is Lap 312 of the fall race at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 2004.
At that point in that race, Earnhardt was in the driver’s seat, so to speak, as far as the [...]

By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Some Thursday Observations:
*An off weekend for the Sprint Cup Series gives the Nationwide and Camping World Truck circuits a chance to share top billing.
The trucks run at Chicagoland while the Nationwide set is on the road course in Montreal.
At Chicago, Ron Hornaday Jr. and crew chief Rick Ren will be [...]

By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
A week from Sunday, NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series will return to the South for a Labor Day weekend race. Traditionalists likely will argue that the race should be held at Darlington Raceway, where the Southern 500 was a Southern Labor Day spectacle for decades.
But there are many around Atlanta who [...]